Job 41

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

41 ^[a] “Can you draw out Levi′athan^[b] with a fishhook,
    or press down his tongue with a cord?
² Can you put a rope in his nose,
    or pierce his jaw with a hook?
³ Will he make many supplications to you?
    Will he speak to you soft words?
⁴ Will he make a covenant with you
    to take him for your servant for ever?
⁵ Will you play with him as with a bird,
    or will you put him on leash for your maidens?
⁶ Will traders bargain over him?
    Will they divide him up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
    or his head with fishing spears?
⁸ Lay hands on him;
    think of the battle; you will not do it again!
^9 [c] Behold, the hope of a man is disappointed;
    he is laid low even at the sight of him.
¹⁰ No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.
    Who then is he that can stand before me?
¹¹ Who has given to me,^[d] that I should repay him?
    Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹² “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
    or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
¹³ Who can strip off his outer garment?
    Who can penetrate his double coat of mail?^[e]
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
    Round about his teeth is terror.
¹⁵ His back^[f] is made of rows of shields,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
¹⁶ One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
¹⁷ They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
¹⁸ His sneezings flash forth light,
    and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
¹⁹ Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap forth.
²⁰ Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
²¹ His breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
²² In his neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before him.
²³ The folds of his flesh cleave together,
    firmly cast upon him and immovable.
²⁴ His heart is hard as a stone,
    hard as the nether millstone.
²⁵ When he raises himself up the mighty^[g] are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
²⁶ Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail;
    nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
²⁷ He counts iron as straw,
    and bronze as rotten wood.
²⁸ The arrow cannot make him flee;
    for him slingstones are turned to stubble.
²⁹ Clubs are counted as stubble;
    he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
³⁰ His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
³¹ He makes the deep boil like a pot;
    he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
³² Behind him he leaves a shining wake;
    one would think the deep to be hoary.
³³ Upon earth there is not his like,
    a creature without fear.
³⁴ He beholds everything that is high;
    he is king over all the sons of pride.”